The acquisition strengthens IOI’s expanding footprint in Singapore, adding to its portfolio of residential projects and key assets such as IOI Central Boulevard Towers, a newly launched Grade A office development in the city’s downtown core. The Malaysia-listed company is controlled by the Lee family, whose wealth originates from the palm oil industry.

City Developments Limited (CDL), meanwhile, has faced challenges in divesting assets following a family dispute that fractured the Kwek family, Singapore’s wealthiest clan. Although ties have since been mended between Chairman Kwek Leng Beng and his son, CEO Sherman Kwek, the latter acknowledged in April that the fallout had shaken investor confidence. He noted that reducing the group’s rising debt burden is now a key priority.

The property in Singapore’s central business district comprises retail space, a 34-storey office tower, and a 45-storey skyscraper that houses a JW Marriott Hotel.

Canberra Crescent Residences condominium

The South Beach development, designed by Norman Foster’s architecture firm, has undergone several changes in ownership. CDL originally acquired the site in 2007 for nearly $1.69 billion alongside two international partners, including a unit of Dubai World Corp. and El-Ad Group Ltd. However, the global financial crisis led to significant delays in construction, prompting both partners to exit the project. IOI later entered the development with a minority stake in 2011. According to a biography published in 2023, CDL’s Chairman Kwek Leng Beng resisted granting IOI an equal stake in order to retain control of the project.

Major tenant Meta Platforms Inc. relinquished seven floors of office space at the South Beach tower last year. As of the end of March, the office tower’s occupancy rate stood at 92.4%, down from 94.4% at the end of the previous year.

An IOI spokesperson declined to comment, and CDL did not immediately respond to a request for information sent via email.

CDL will divest its 50.1% stake in South Beach to existing minority shareholder IOI Properties Group Bhd, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity due to the confidentiality of the transaction. This move will give Malaysia’s IOI full ownership of the South Beach development. The deal values the property at approximately $2.75 billion.

City Developments Ltd.’s decision to offload its majority stake in one of Singapore’s most iconic mixed-use developments is part of a broader effort to reduce debt and rebuild investor trust following internal tensions within the Kwek family that have impacted the company’s reputation.

The transaction will assist CDL in meeting its pledge to exceed the approximately $600 million in divestments completed in 2024, which fell short of its \$1 billion target.